African immigrant women’s experience in western host societies: a scoping review

Abstract

There is a dearth of literature on new African immigrant populations in Canada, especially women from Sub-Saharan Africa. Much of the sparse literature focuses on men’s experiences. We analyzed the sparse literature on African immigrant women in western host countries with a focus on previous and emerging trends in the discourse, gaps in literature, important areas for consideration in future research as well as potentially viable theoretically and methodological directions that scholars could follow. We also briefly shared the results of a set of focus group discussions with African women in Canada that followed our scoping review. The findings of our scoping review of literature, largely reinforced in the focus group discussions, underscore the need for more studies on Sub-Saharan African immigrant women’s experiences within and outside the family. Active community engagement as well as the mobilization of women's agency and cultural knowledge, resonate as crucial factors that enhance the transition and integration of Africans into Western host societies.

Keywords:

• Gender and migration
• African women
• gender relations
• domestic violence
• immigrant women

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This work was supported by Killam Trusts [grant RES0023957].

Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge University of Alberta’s Grant Assist Program (GAP) and Kule Institute for Advanced Studies (KIAS) for funding our study, Africa Centre in Edmonton for in-kind assistance as well as Beatrice Ghettuba (Chair of the Board of Africa Center) and Jeanne Lehman for participant recruitment.